Wireless communication systems have been extremely popular for more than a decade. They allow users to communicate with each other while remaining geographically mobile. These systems also allow communications to be in different modes, such as full-duplex voice, half-duplex voice, and data, as examples. An example of a wireless communication system protocol is 1xEV-DO which specifies the requirements for system that is optimized for data communication. Although an 1xEV-DO wireless communication system serves to exemplify the invention, it shall be understood that the invention is applicable to other types of wireless communication systems.
FIG. 1 illustrates a block diagram of an exemplary 1xEV-DO wireless communication system 100. The wireless communication system 100 comprises a network 102, and a plurality of base stations, two of which are shown as base stations 104 and 106. The wireless communication system 100 serves a plurality of subscriber units (SUs), two of which are shown as SUs 108 and 110 currently communicating with base station 104. The network 102 includes a plurality of network devices that provide data communication services to the SUs 108 and 110. The base stations 104 and 106 provide a wireless interface between the network 102 and the SUs 108 and 110.
In this example, base station 104 includes three different sectors α, β and δ. The SUs 108 and 110 are situated within the coverage area 112 of sector β of base station 104. In particular, SU 110 is located in a region 112a that has a relatively good RF environment. That is, in region 112a, SU 110 is able to transmit and receive data to and from the base station 104 at a relatively high data rate. Whereas, SU 108 is located in another region 112b that has a relatively poor RF environment. That is, in region 112b, SU 108 is only able to transmit and receive data to and from the base station 104 at a relatively low data rate because of the poor RF environment.
According to the 1xEV-DO protocol, the base stations 104 and 106 each includes a proportional fair scheduler that determines which SU has priority, i.e., better QoS, in obtaining a traffic channel for accessing the base stations, and ultimately, the network 102. The proportional fair scheduler prioritizes the allocation of traffic channel resources (e.g., time slots and data rates) based on a number of parameters. One such parameter is the RF condition of the SU. Generally, the proportional fair scheduler gives priority for traffic channel resources to SUs in good RF environment. For example, the proportional fair scheduler of base station 104 would give priority to SU 110 since it is in a relatively good RF environment. On the other hand, the proportional fair scheduler of base station 104 would not give priority to SU 108 since it is in a relatively poor RF environment.
However, a service provider may desire to designate certain SUs as having “high-priority” (i.e., higher QoS) for accessing the network. The service provider may, for example, give such “high-priority” status to users who have paid a premium price for services, who are employees of the service provider, and/or have been subscribers for a relatively long period. If, however, such user is situated in a poor RF environment as is SU 108, the user may not be given its deserved “high-priority” for accessing the network 102 because of the poor RF environment.